Bird In The Car

Today, there were feathers all over in my car. There was fluttering of feathers and frantic attempts to escape. And how it all started, we have absolutely no idea.

It was actually a bird that got into the car as we drove. We were on the highway, going to office. Suddenly, I heard some noise in the rear just like a plastic bag makes when it flutters in the wind. And then, there were feathers all over. My first thought was that some chicken feathers had got in from the tempo that carries chickens and hens.

But then I saw in the rear mirror and and was amazed to see a red-vented bulbul trying to escape through the closed windows. I stopped the car. Sanjeev got down and opened the boot and the left rear door. The poor birdie had panicked and was sitting near the left rear door. Sanjeev shooed it off and it took flight out of the door, glad to be ridden of the closed cage.

We were laughing for so long at the amazing and rare incident. The only way the little bird could have got in was through my open window. It probably wanted to fly across the road before my car passed. But with its mistaken timing and the speed of my car, it zoomed into my car instead of across. Poor soul! What fearful moments it must have had before it could escape! But, it could escape and be free! 

I can only say this: पक्ष्यांचे पण अंदाज चुकू शकतात!

Nights 20 Kms Apart

It's night time and I just peeked out of our window. It's calm and quiet outside. Not everyday do I find it like this here.

Nights at Shaniwar Peth are so different than the nights at Nigdi, in all aspects.

At Shaniwar Peth, I always experience some things that are totally absent here. Being in the rear wing of a building really does a make a huge difference. It's calmer, more sooothing there. Only occassionally will you hear a car zoom past on the road with a loud, blaring horn. Sometimes you'll hear an ambulance or police van siren and you wonder who's ill or who's being chased. If you are lucky, on a silent winter night, you'll hear the chugging of a train and enjoy the rhythmic passage of the carrier-on-wheels.

There's a cowshed just below my house and you can't miss the bells tinkling in the necks of the cows. Whenever I hear that, I imagine those cows chewing their cud, nodding away silently. It's funny how I then remember the chapter from my second or third standard science book about how and why cows chew cud, and the four parts of their stomach (can't remember now what those are, though.) Science as a subject has given me quite a few nightmares. But it also provides some lighter moments.

As I write, I can visualise the Shaniwar Peth square with all its happenings. There must be a few young men from the Mutheshwar Mandal chatting round the corner. Night walkers, people who like their night walk before they go off to bed, would be taking their night strolls. A lone dog-walker would be making his dog move over, while the dog adamantly keeps on sniffing at a car and refuses to budge.

In Nigdi, I have rearely come across dog-walkers. But night walkers, there are a-plenty. You will also find a bunch of youngsters gathered for their nightly gupshup.

The one difference here is that my home is directly on the road, which is a huge disadvantage, at least at night. All sorts of vehicles go past making a big noise, magnified by the silence of the night. Trucks, lorries, cars, bikers with their hideous horns, all go past. It's not that there's a continuous flow. But that one truck is more than enough to wake you up from your slumber.

Nothwithstanding this minor disturbance, I can enjoy the coolness of the night when I go up to the terrace. And if it's a full-moon, the beauty of the night is incomparable.

If you go up on the terrace and look around, you'll see all bungalows around you, interspersed with trees, swaying gently in the night breeze. Some of the households would still have a light or two on and you wonder what's happenening there so late at night. Suddenly a light is switched off somewhere reminding you of the lateness of the hour.

The Modern High School behind my house looms large at night. Standing dark and quiet in the night, it's hard to imagine that in another ten hours, it will be overflowing with chattering children livening up the building.

As is always the case, it's taken time for me to adjust to my new environment. But it is my new home now.

And when I miss being in Shaniwar Peth, I recall that there is at least one similarity between the two places: invisible dogs barking their heads off as if the world's about to end. And I feel at home again!

Photos Galore

A visit to the Bannerghatta National Park in Bengaluru obviously asked for a ready camera and patience. My friend and I also visited the Butterfly Park inside the National Park.

Here's a link to the pics that I took: http://picasaweb.google.com/prajaktacpradhan/BannerghattaNationalParkAndButterflyPark?feat=directlink

I enjoyed taking the pics. Hope you like the pics!

"Sirius"ly Yours

This wonderful friend finally succumbed to the inevitable.

He had wandered into Wadia Stud Farm as a small pup where he was adopted unconditionally.

He lived life giving love to everyone. He was especially attached my mother who works there. He waited for her on guard when she worked overtime and accompanied her till the gate. He was truly noble.


All at Wadia Stud Farm will truly miss you, Sirius!

Celebrating "Chaitanya"

Here's a beautiful song that celebrates चैतन्य in nature:

Life is good!

Every Second

10.48 in the night and there's still no electricity. All darkness around. The night is alive again. The only difference is, that there is an ear-pressing silence everywhere. With no electricity, the refrigerator is silent. The TV is off. The tubelights, which would usually hum right till midnight are mute.

As I lay on my bed, I think of all things that are happening at the moment in the world around...

At this second, waves are lashing on shores.
...birds are flying.
...people are rushing to their work.
...dogs are barking.
...children are playing and having fun.
...winds are blowing.
...people are talking, fighting, discussing, relaxing, working, smoking, drinking, and what not.
...earth is rotating and revolving.
...water is gushing out in volumes from waterfalls.
...rivers are rushing out to the sea.
...writers are writing, readers are reading.
...people are eating and people are starving.
...trees are cut down and made into furniture.
...lions, tigers, leopards, cheetahs, bears, and other such animals could be hunting for prey.
...people are praying for a better life.
...flocks of sheep grazing out and munching on a content life.
...birds are flying in the open sky and fishes are swimming in the expansive waters.
...time is ticking.

Godaan

Munshi Premchand...a very respected Hindi and Urdu writer. I came across the translation of his most famous work "Godaan" and I picked it up in sheer curiosity. I was never a great reader of Hindi literature. But I remember having one of his stories to study in school. I picked up the book just to know why it was so famous.

I may not be able to tell a lot about the book. But this book is definitely a good read. The translation, I suppose, could have been better. But I found it entertaining.

Godaan is the story of Horiram, his wife Dhania, son Gobar(dhan), daughters Sona and Rupiya, and other characters in the story, which are quite a number of them. You will meet most of the usual crowd that you will find in a village drama, the local policeman, the sahukars, the pundits, the city-bred folks, the upper-caste and lower-caste people. The novel records Horiram's dream of owning a cow, which is not just the pride of the household, but also considered sacred, the problems he faces, and how society plays an important role in all this.

Horiram's utter poverty, deprived conditions, loans to run the family and household, and social norms that he faces and succumbs to is a major theme in the novel. Loan sharks take away his money, his farm produce, his bulls, his self-respect too. But there's one thing that they just can't take away...his dreams. Horiram is just a representative of the lakhs and crores of farmers who share the same plights. Their world is almost similar to what is shown in the book. And I doubt it has changed much since the book was written in 1936. The socio-economic deprivation of small, poor farmers is, I guess, still the same.

Premchand has very intricately shown a diaspora of themes intertwined with each other. You have the problems Horiram faces due to his loans, the extravagant celebrations at Rai Sahib's place, the city-bred folks and their discussions on politics, money, life, social standards, their hypocrisy, a disruption in social order as high-caste men ensnare low-caste women, life of the city dwellers, marriages, weddings, social festivals, and human emotions all spun in the same tale.

While at one place Horiram's life is dwindling towards ulitmate destruction due to loans, Premchand portrays the exhuberant and lavish life of the city folks who are great talkers of social reform and greater misers who exploit farmers, labourers, and at times, even helpless women. Life at its best and life at its worst...all shades and all walks of life.

I guess at its time, the novel would have been quite forward in its thoughts. It shows a lady doctor, Miss Malti, who has come back from England and who falls in love with a philosopher, Mr. Mehta. In the end they both accept their love for each other but decide not to get married but still stay together and love each other. I think this was an unknown thing at that time...staying together without marrying (although in a city) was not much heard of. Moreover, they might have been ostracised by the society. But Premchand was ahead of his times and had the courage to show this, especially because the lady suggests this option which the philosopher readily accepts.

Premchand also has shown widow-remarriage. Interestingly, Jhunia, who is a widow starts loving Gobar and becomes pregnant. Gobar too loves her truly, but is apprehensive about his mother's reaction. He abandons her at his parents doorstep and flees when he is sure that his mother has taken Jhunia under her wings. Till the end, Jhunia and Gobar are together as husband-wife, yet they are never shown as actually married. I found that amazing.

Matadin, the son of the local pundit ensnares a low-caste chamarin Siliya, impregnates her, and then disowns her when her family force him to eat meat. Siliya really loves Matadin and prefers to raise the child with a quiet determination of loving Matadin forever. She believes that Matadin will come back to her and ultimately he does.

In all this, Premchand shows the hypocrisy of religious men, of men in power, of wealth, of social norms, of principles, of ideals.

Premchand's characters are full of life and three dimensional. Most of the landlords and loan-sharks behave just as they should, just as they have been doing all these generations. And so do the villagers. They come to wish luck for good tidings and thwart the miserables when in dire conditions. That's what everyone does. It's human after all to be there with people when they are going through a good patch and desert them when life turns bad for them. Life's like that!

Dhania is a very strong woman. She is (in)famous for her acrid tongue. She does not take a single abuse, injustice lying down, especially against her own self, or her husband, who is rather a simpleton and god-fearing. She is ready to fight the ridiculous and unjust social laws, yet is held back every time by Horiram. In spite of that, she respects Horiram and supports him. I admire her character especially in two situations...one is when Jhuniya, five-months pregnant, lands at her door. Dhania was aware of Jhunia and Gobar's affair, and had vehemently talked of never letting Jhunia step into the house if Gobar married her. Yet, when she is at the doorstep, Dhania complains initially but ultimately does not turn her out. She welcomes her in house as her own bahu and loves her all the more. She never mistreats Jhunia and showers her love on Jhunia and her son.

The second incident is when Siliya is outcast by the village. Dhania gives shelter to Siliya and allows her to stay at her place fully knowing that the whole village was angry with Siliya. She did not care about the whole world but stood by Siliya although she was a low-caste woman. Dhania's strength, struggles, a modern outlook towards life, pride in her family and kids, heart-wrenching pitiable state, yet her will power make her an outstanding character. I liked her the best in the novel.

When I started the novel, I was only sceptical about it. But slowly I got interested, so much so that I could barely put down the book. When I got up in the morning, I was wondering what all was to happen to Horiram, Dhania, Gobar, Jhuniya, Siliya, Mr. Mehta, Miss Malti, and the other characters.

A social documentary, Godaan is a charismatic tale of Horiram and his life, interlinked with so many others, going through the same hell or heaven at that time. Times have changed. But I guess the society is still the same. The only difference is that Horiram toiled hard to return his loan of Rs. 250. Now farmers have to toil hard to return their loans of Rs. 25000. Sort of déjà vu, isn't it?

Clicking Away!

Some of my favourite pictures that I clicked...

This one I clicked in the University of Pune. This is a lamp post and I loved framing it with the green background.

I clicked this one on "Tripuri Pournima, " a sacred full-moon night on November 2, 2009.

Taken at Karla. After I saw this photo on a bigger screen did I notice the cobweb. That made it an interesting picture.

 I liked the red and green colours. Nice contrast! And the sharpness of the flower is beautiful.

 This one I liked for the positions of the two trees. Just two trees at either end diagonally in the picture make the frame interesting and characteristic.

 "Terda" Those are the flowers. I don't know the English name for these flowers. But we use them especially in Navratra, so I liked taking their picture.

 I liked this one for the combination of red, blue, and green.

 Loved this one for the little birdie and the timing.

 Liked it for the perspective it offers because of the fence, the playground, and the building.

 Taken from a film camera two years back, I think. I like this one for the vastness of the landscape and the lone farmer in the middle toiling. The arid landscape bring out his efforts in a stark reality.

 I love this one for the inky blue colour of the sky. It is awesome.

 One nice doggy at my place basking in the sun.

 One small lamp in the darkness. I liked this picture that places the lamp so strategically.

That's all that I could find. I think these are enough pics at the moment.

The Sound Of Night

On a silent winter night, when you are all curled up in your bed, reading a nice book, have you ever heard the night sounds?

The crickets noisy presence is felt and you wonder what is happening on the other side of the world. The other half of the world is enjoying the day and you are about to tuck it in. As you mark the page and keep aside the book, you will hear the night musician at work.

You will hear the night watchmen whistling and keeping the otherwise silent night lively. You will also hear them making a characteristic "thok, thok, thok" sound with their sticks. Then you will hear some rash ruffians driving their stupid, noisy bikes at full speed. Sometimes, you will hear the siren of an ambulance and you will hope that the sick get medical help as soon as possible. You will hear some dogs howling happily into the night and also hear some other dogs replying back. If you stay near a cowshed (as I do, right in the heart of the city,) you will hear the tinkering of the bells and wonder how long the cows will stay awake. You will wonder if they ever stop chewing cud at least while sleeping.

As you get cosier in your bed, you finally realise that you have got to go to work next day and try to sleep. Just as you are about to sleep, you are awoken by the sudden, violent grunt of your old refrigerator. Cursing the icebox, you drift off to sleep again.